The invention concerns a method and apparatus for detecting address fields on mail pieces, wherein a digital image of the surface which shows the routing information of each mailed piece is produced, stored, and supplied to an OCR unit for automatic evaluation and the associated complete image of the surface which shows the routing information is further routed to a video coding device if the required address field cannot be clearly identified.
The automatic reading of routing information, particularly addresses on mail pieces, is well known in the art. Manual video coding is known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,031,223 and 5,697,504 (which are herein incorporated by reference) for items which could not be read automatically. In general, the mail items are presented on a graphic display during video coding and information is inputted manually by a data entry device such as a keyboard.
While the fields with the routing information, like for example receiver address, can generally be found easily and automatically read with letters, there are difficulties with the automatic location of fields for other types of mail pieces such as over sized letters (so called flats: newspapers, journals, catalogues) or packages because among other things the surfaces are relatively wide and the addresses are located on patterned or printed surfaces. This is particularly problematic because a complete stoppage of the automatic reading can be caused by a certain mail piece type where the address cannot be found. This tends to happen with over-sized letters and packages. For this reason, the location of the address is video coded. This method works as follows: an image of the mail piece is presented on the display of the video coding system and the coder selects a determined field where the address is located instead of inputting the address. This for instance may and preferably can occur such that the image is divided into segments according to the digit block of a keyboard, via a grid, and a segment is selected very quickly by a single confirming key stroke, wherein the required field is located (see DE 196 46 522 A1, which is incorporated herein by reference). This field returns then to the automatic reading process where in the address is being read.
However, the above described process includes several problems. First, the manual determination causes a certain delay for the system, which requires a sorting machine with a delay line. Such a machine, though, is often not particularly given for flats. Second, the task is of a very repetitive nature because similar mail pieces often occur in succession.
A solution is also known wherein the location of the required field is determined by cursor positioning and this position of the field is stored for the next mail piece. The OCR unit tries to read the address for the next mail piece and thereby to find the respective field as a first step. If this field can not be found, in particular the reading process is not successful, the automatic reading process with the stored position of the address field is restarted. After this reading process has also been unsuccessful, a video coding takes place (See EP 0 589 119 A1, which is incorporated herein by reference). With this, it is possible to only once input by video coding this address field which was not found by a major client and by the OCR unit at several subsequent mail pieces of the same type. If these mail pieces are not arranged successively, this method fails.
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for reducing video coding expenditure for determining address fields to be recognized and read during the automatic reading process of mail handling. These and other advantages will become clear from the description and claims below.
The determination and storing of a signature of images for which the OCR unit could not identify the field with the routing information, together with the produced position of the field with the routing information, in a database, by video coding and the scanning of the database for consistent signatures for the determination of the position of the field, substantially shortens the process of the determination of the fields with the routing information, if the OCR unit could not find these fields, because mail items of the same type (signature) have to only be coded once. Therefore, sorting machines with short or insufficient delay or hold-up lines can be included into the video coding mode for the routing information.
It is advantageous, to feed data from several reading systems into a database by an electronic network, and to search respectively for consistent signatures from the reading systems in the database. Mail pieces of the same type have to thereby be video coded only once within the scope of these reading systems regarding the location of the field.
The present invention is further directed to a method for reading address fields of mail items, comprising the steps of: locating and reading said address field, if said address field cannot be located and read, scanning a surface of said mail item, said surface comprising said address field; forming a signature of said surface, said signature comprising position and outlines of a select number of typographic fields of said surface; searching a database for a match between said signature and another signature; where a match is found, importing field address information from said database associated with said another signature and repeating said step of locating and reading; and where a match is not found, forwarding scanned surface to an encoding device, manually encoding said surface, and storing said signature and address field information in said database.
The present invention is further directed to an apparatus for reading address fields of mail items, comprising: means for locating and reading said address field, means for determining if said address field cannot be located and read, and means for scanning a surface of said mail item if said address field cannot be located and read, said surface comprising said address field; means for forming a signature of said surface, said signature comprising position and outlines of a select number of typographic fields of said surface; means for searching a database for a match between said signature and another signature; means for determining if a match is found and means importing field address information from said database associated with said another signature and repeating said step of locating and reading where a match is found; and means for determining if a match is not found and means for forwarding scanned surface to an encoding device, manually encoding said surface, and storing said signature and address field information in said database if a match is not found.